Locomotive steam pipe connection and support



June 27, 1939. .1. c. MARIS LOCOMOTIVE STEAM PIPE CONNECTION AND SUPPORT Filed March 4, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR James 0. Meals- June 27, 1939. J.4C MARIS LOCOMOTIVE STEAM PIPE CONNECTION AND SUPPORT Filed March 4, 1957 3 SheetsSheet 2 INVENTOR JAMES C. Mme/s June 27, 1939. J c, R s 2,163,886

LOCOMOTIVE STEAM PIPE CONNECTION AND SUPPORT Filed March 4, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 I g. 7. 53 INVENTOR James C. M91216 1. BY I A TORNEY G Patented June 27, 1939 UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE James C. Maris, Glenolden, Pa.

Application March 4,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improved means for taking care of the expansion of steam pipes in a locomotive and is applicable either to the steam supply or exhaust pipesof certain types of locomotives having forward and rear pairs of cylinders.

Various arrangements have heretofore been proposed and used including my Patent No. 1,758,845, issued May 13, 1930, for providing flexible connections in the steam supply or exhaust pipes which connect the rear and forward pairs of cylinders. Such prior arrangements, however, have involved structure that is more or less complicated as well as necessitating a multiplicity of packing glands.

It is an object of my invention to provide an improved slidable stuffing box and support therefor that is relatively simple and economical in manufacture, maintenance and operation and is compact and sturdy while at the same time is efficient in sealing the relatively movable pipe sections and in permitting maximum flexibility in the articulated type of locomotives.

A further object is to provide an improved simplified stuffing box for steam pipes as above mentioned whereby a single packing gland may be used between two sections of such pipes while permitting each of the adjacent ends of said sec tions to be freely expansible in the case of a rigid wheel base type of locomotive and additionally to be flexible in the case of an articulated type of locomotive.

Other objects and advantages: will be more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the forward portion of a locomotive of the rigid wheel base type having forward and rear pairs 4!). of cylinders with my invention applied to the exhaust pipe thereof;

Fig. 21s a plan view of the piping arrangement of Fig. 1 with the boiler removed but showing the forward and rear pairs of cylinders;

, Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal vertical section taken on the line 33 of Figs. 2 and 4;

. Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken on the lines 4-4 of Figs. 2 and 3;

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the 1937, Serial No. 129,028 (Cl. 105-47) the manner of slidably supporting the the under side thereof;

Fig. 7 is a partial longitudinal vertical section taken on line 1-1 of Fig. 6.

' In the particular embodiments of the invention such as are disclosed herein merely for the purpose of illustrating certain specific forms among possible others that the invention might take in practice, I have shown in Fig. 1, a locomotive broadly of the rigid wheel base type such as shown in McCarroll Patent 1,622,917, wherein forward and rear pairs of cylinders I and 2 are secured to: a common rigid frame 3. A forward set of driving wheels 4 are driven from. the front cylinders I while a rear set of driving wheels 5 are driven from the rear cylinders 2. Steam is supplied to the forward and rear cylinders from a boiler 6 through a pipe I, superheater Band a pair of pipes 9 leading respectively to the two sides of the locomotive for connection to longitudinal steam supply pipes I0 and H, Figs. 1 and 2. The forward and rear ends of these supply pipes are suitably connected to the cylinder structures I and 2 in a manner well known in the art. Inasmuch as the details of construction of these longitudinal supply pipes do not constitute a part of my present invention, it is not necessary to describe the same in further detail. The exhauststeam from the rear cylinders 2 is discharged forwardly through an exhaust pipe generally indicated at l2 located centrally of the locomotive as shown in Fig, 2. The rear end of this pipe is rigidly connected at M to the rear cylinder structure 2 and is also rigidly connected at its front end as indicated at IE to an upwardly directed exhaust passage Iii formed in the usual saddle l! of the front cylinder structure.

To take care of the longitudinal expansion of pipe l2 in a relatively simple manner as well as to effectively support both the pipe and a stufling box, I have provided an improved combined slidable packing joint and support as generally indicated at 20. An outer stuffing box casing 2|, Fig. 3, is secured to one section 22 of pipe [2, this casing having a pair of longitudinal flanges 23, Fig. 4, disposed at its upper side. These flanges are slidably supported by a bracket 25 and gibs 26 secured to suitable flanged portions of bracket 25 by bolts 21. The bracket 25 in turn is secured to any suitable crosstie such as 28 formed rigidly with the locomotive frame 3. The bracket 25 may be formed integrally with crosstie 28 or bolted thereto by bolts 30 which pass joint from I H through suitable vertical flanges 3| of the bracket.

Telescopically received within the stufling box casing 2| is a relatively short pipe 32 provided with suitable packing 33 to seal the sliding connection with casing 21. The packing 33 is specifically shown as radially expansible 'metallic rings although any other suitable packing material may be employed. The rear end of sleeve 32 is secured to the rear section 34 of pipe [2 through a suitable spherical connection 35 held by bolts 36.

In the operation of the invention as disclosed in Figs. 1 to 4, expansion of the pipe section 22 is taken care of by longitudinal sliding movement between the flanges 23 and the supporting bracket 25, While expansion of the pipe section 34 is taken care of by relative movement between the sleeve 32 and casing 2|. During such sliding adjustment, the stufling box arrangement is firmly supported and guided by the upper and lower opposed guiding surfaces of bracket 25 and gibs 25, and this firm guiding support in turn operates to support the pipe sections at their intermediate portion and to resist any rotational efiect on the casing about a transverse axis caused by the weight of the pipe sections thereby more effectively maintaining the pipe sections in alignment. As a consequence unnecessary strain in the pipe connections adiacent the casing is reduced to a minimum. The same results are also accomplished in the other disclosures herein. This arrangement provides an extremely simple, compact and yet sturdy construction that is economical and eflicient in operation and maintenance and is readily accessible for repair or inspection. The entire stufling box construction may be readily removed from the locomotive merely by removing bolts 36 and 21, Figs. 3 and 4, and dropping the inner ends of one or the other of the pipe sections 22 or 34 to allow longitudinal removal of sleeve 32 or casing 21.

In Figs. 5 and 6, I have applied my improved stuffing box arrangement to the steam supply pipe which conducts steam from the cylinders 45 of the rear unit of an articulated locomotive to the cylinders 45 of the front unit of such locomotive. In this case the steam supply pipe has two sections 41 and 48. The rear pipe section 48 has a swivel connection 53 of a usual type with the rear cylinder structure such as shown in my Patent No. 1,758,845, while the front end of said pipe section has an integrally continuing sleeve portion 48' telescoping with and forming a part of a combined ball and slip joint, generally indicated at 59, provided with an outer casing 5i secured to the forward pipe section 41. This joint includes a ball seat 63 held in position by a packing gland 5| which is secured to casing 5i by suitable bolts while partial spherical balls 62 and packing 63 are disposed between the pipe sleeve portion 48' and casing 5i, thereby permitting relative longitudinal movement of casing 5i and pipe 48 as well as limited swivelling between the same. The stuffing box is provided at its under side with longitudinal flanges 52, corresponding to the flanges 23 of Fig. 4, the flanges 52 being slidably supported in a suitable bracket 53 formed either integrally with or bolted to a suitable cross tie member 54 of the locomotive frame. Gibs 55 are removably bolted to the bracket 53 to complete the guideways for flanges 52. Casing 5| is secured to pipe section 47 by a usual flanged coupling 51. Thus it is seen that a single casing structure and packing is operative to permit expansion of each of the adjacent ends of the pipe sections while at the same time permitting the necessary swivelling of the rear pipe section 48 during lateral movement of the articulated frames.

It will of course be understood that various changes in details of construction and arrangement of parts may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

v i. The combination in a locomotive having a irasne, forward and rear cylinder structures, a pipe for conducting steam from the rear cylindcr structure to the forward structure, said pipe being formed in sections adapted to expand longitudinally relative to each other, means for sup porting and packing the adjacent ends of said pipe sections including an outer casing secured to one of the same, a longitudinal guiding flange formed integrally with and directly on said cas ing to support the same, means formed rigidly with respect to said frame to provide a slideway for vertically and laterally restricting but longitudinally movably guiding said flange, said slideway having upper and lower opposed members forming guiding surfaces, said opposed surfaces normally having slid-able contact with both the upper and lower surfaces of said guiding flanges so that said casing and its flanges together with said opposed guiding surfaces form a sell contained unit which resists rotational movement in a vertical plane thereby to maintain said pipe sections in substantial alignment with each other regardless of any tendency of the pipe sections to tilt said casing about a transverse axis, the other of said sections including a passage portion as a fixed part thereof and being telescopically rcceived within said casing, and packing interposed between said passage portion and easing, whereby said longitudinal guiding flange and slidcway rovide a direct and positive vertical and lateral support for said casing, passage portion and interposed packing, said casing being vertically and laterally supported independently of either of said pipe sections.

2. The combination set forth in claim 3 fur ther characterized in that said packing includes a swivel ball and socket connection with packing forming a portion of said connection to seal the passage portion and casing during relative longitudinal and swivelling movement between the same.

JAMES C. MARIE. 

